Nigel Short

Nigel Short is a British International Master best known for the World Champion title match between him an Gary Kasparov at the Savoy Theatre in London, 1993.

From January 1988 to July 1989, Short was ranked third in the world by FIDE. Today, he still ranks as one of the worlds top-50 chess players.

In addition to playing chess, Short also writes about chess for leading British newspapers. He has coached several young chess players, including David Howell, Segey Karjakin, Parimarjan Negi and Pendyala Harikrishna. In 2006- 2007, Short was the national coach of the Iranian chess team. The team took bronze at the Asian Games in Qatar 2006, and in the (nine event) Asian Indoor Games in Macau 2007 the team capture one silver medal and two bronze.

Short is an Honorary Fellow of the Bolton Institute of Higher Education, and has received an Honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Bolton.

In 1999, he was awarded with an MBE (Order of the British Empire).

Background

Nigel David Short was born in Leigh, Lancashire, England on June 1, 1965. He grew up on Atherton and was educated at St Philip’s Primary School, Bolton School and Leigh College. His father founded the Artherton Chess Club, and Nigel was a member until he moved on to the Bolton Chess Club (which had rejected the seven year old Nigel due to his low age when he applied for membership the first time).

When Short was just ten years old, he gained a lot of attention by defeating Russian grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi in a simultaneous exhibition.

In 1977, Short qualified to the British Chess Championship three days before turning 12, making him the youngest participant ever. Two years later, he tied for first place (with John Nunn and Robert Bellin) in the 1979 British Chess Championship in Chester. This earned him his first IM norm.

When a 14 year old Short scored 8/15 in the Hastings Premier in 1979/1980, he became the youngest International Master in chess history, breaking Boddy Fischers record from 1958. (Short’s record has since been broken as well.)

In 1980, Short placed second to Garry Kasparov in the World Junior Championships in Dortmund.

In 1984, the 19 year old Short became the youngest grandmaster in the world (at the time).

Chess career

In 1985, Nigel Short qualified to the Candidates tournament from the Biel Interzonal. He was no Britain’s first-ever candidate.

His most successful stab at the Championship title took place after qualifying to the Candidates tournament via the Manila Interzonal. In the semi-final (played in 1992), Short defeated former World Champion Anatoly Karpov in a match widely hailed as “the end of an era”. In the final, Short beat the Netherland’s Jan Timman, thereby earning the right to challenge Garry Kasparov for the World Chess Champion title.

When World Chess Federation (FIDE) head Florencio Campomanes, in breach of FIDE rules, decided on the location of the championship match as well as the size of the prize fund without consulting Short and Kasparov, the two broke away from FIDE and formed a rival organization – the Professional Chess Association.

The Professional Chess Association arranged a match between Short and Kasparov in 1993, with a prize fund sponsored by The Times. It was played in London in September and October. Kasparov won wit the score +6−1=13.

Short became secretary general for the Commonwealth Chess in 2005, and the organization’s president a year later. He stayed as president until January 2008. Since 2009, Short has been a FIDE delegate to the English Chess Federation.